OTTAWA—Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has been forced to repay $840 to the federal treasury after mistakenly billing Parliament for costs connected to his past, paid speaking engagements.

The double-billing errors were acknowledged by Trudeau on Thursday.

“As a Member of Parliament, I take full, personal responsibility for the financial administration of my office, including these errors,” Trudeau said in the statement.

The errors came to light because of an audit ordered last year by an all-party vote in the House of Commons — which itself was the result of an NDP push to have more disclosure surrounding Trudeau’s paid speaking gigs.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said Thursday that the errors were more than simple accounting mistakes.

“It says a lot about his judgment and, frankly, the Liberals’ classic sense of entitlement,” Mulcair told reporters after Trudeau’s statement was issued. “This was moonlighting from his job here in Parliament . . . I think he should concentrate on getting his job done here.”

The Conservatives pounced on Trudeau’s announcement, too, as a measure of his political fitness.

“Justin Trudeau’s willingness to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from charity and now taxpayers raises serious questions of his judgment,” said Candice Bergen, Minister of State for Social Development.

Trudeau last year voluntarily revealed the amounts of money he earned from speaking engagements while also serving as an MP — a practice he halted when he decided to seek the Liberal leadership around late 2011.

Critics said Trudeau was out of line charging money to charities and school boards — organizations that should be able to expect an MP to speak to them for nothing.

Nonetheless, NDP MP Nathan Cullen put forward a motion in the Commons last June calling for an investigation into all MPs’ costs surrounding paid speaking engagements.

The subsequent audit found that Trudeau’s office had submitted a $672 travel bill for a trip whose expenses had already been covered by Speaker’s Spotlight, the agency that arranged his appearances.

“One of the most important things about my approach in politics has been creating a level of accountability, of transparency, of openness, of honesty. That means admitting when mistakes were made, taking responsibility for them and fixing them,” Trudeau told reporters while helping provincial Liberals on the byelection trail in Ontario.

He said admissions like this will “hopefully restore Canadians’ trust in our political system.”

In his statement, Trudeau said he wrote a cheque to the federal Receiver General as soon as the mistake was uncovered. He said he also then asked for a more detailed review of past accounts, which turned up an additional $168.05 billed in error to Parliament.

Trudeau said errors like this will be caught sooner if all MPs adopt the Liberals’ new system of disclosing office expenses online — a practice that began in the fall for all Liberal caucus members.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.